Insight from the Wisdom Hunter

A few years ago, a book entitled The Wisdom Hunter impacted me profoundly. It's a Christian novel written by Randall Arthur about the trap of legalistic Christianity. It's not necessarily a book that will go down in history as a classic, but the insights one can glean from it are priceless. I took the liberty back then to paraphrase and quote some of those insights, and occasionally I read back thru them. They still speak to me now as they did then. I found, after reading them again that they dealt (even if indirectly) with my prior post, To Church or not to Church. Enjoy! -David

Paraphrased Notes From Wisdom Hunter

1. STUDENT ATTITUDE vs. AUTHORITARIAN ATTITUDE

Most are taught, directly and indirectly, and professionally and nonprofessionally, that a preacher should be an authority, and that he should clearly, and forcefully if necessary, display the attitude of an authority. It goes like this, “No one should ever develop the idea that the preacher is weak or doesn’t know the answers.”

There are few things more counterproductive, self-defeating, and utterly destructive than a mortal preacher with an authoritarian attitude. That kind of attitude is the cause of countless and uncalled-for offenses. Those who leave a place from not being able to tolerate that attitude are probably people who have more potential for dynamic Christian growth than those who stay. The ones who stay are the simple-minded “yes” people, while the ones who leave are the “thinkers,” the people whose active, creative, and hungry minds were being suffocated by that style of leadership.

Instead of that authoritarian, flagrant attitude, work to cultivate a student attitude in it’s place.

Open the mind and let the world be the classroom, and to keep from swinging to the other extreme and becoming a philosophical anarchist, let the Bible, objectively interpreted, be the filter that governs what is soaked up in the quest for true wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and insight.

The only group of people whom Jesus could not and would not tolerate were the self-righteous and know-it-all Pharisees. Even Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, could not enlighten them and expose to them their extreme and distorted beliefs. Their authoritarian attitude prevented him from penetrating their minds with the facts. Fed up with their foolish know-it-all attitude, Jesus told them outright that they had discarded knowledge, and had locked up the room where real learning takes place, and thrown away the key, and both they and their followers were on the outside of that room. That had closed their minds to learning because they already “knew it all.”

2. HONEST QUESTIONING vs. BLIND BELIEVING

Many blindly believe everything their older peers feed them, without ever questioning the validity of anything they say. Many are in this gullible condition because they have never been asked, encouraged, or taught to learn by the process of questioning, disagreeing, challenging, or thinking. Rather, they are left to assume (whether intentionally or unintentionally) that all teachers are masters of their subjects and could neither teach nor believe anything wrong. Consequently, they learn by being programmed like a computer. They are not taught how to think, they are taught what to think. As a result, they become pathetic little parrots who all his life simply repeats what he hears.

Many on the other side of this scenario are convinced they are preaching the inflexible truth, and expect all their followers to blindly follow what they are passing down to them. They carry out a pastoral crusade of “Believe exactly the way I believe or be damned.”

Like the Catholic hierarchy of old, they indirectly their followers to blindly believe them, and then socially punish them in the name of “church discipline” if they do not.

To blindly believe any teaching is treacherously wrong. The Pharisees blindly believed the manmade and traditional teachings of their forefathers, equated them with the Scriptures, and guarded them with tenacity. Jesus told them that their blind adherence to those impotent teachings, and their insistence upon revering them, made their worship of God utterly vain (Mark 7:1-13).

Instead of blindly believing, we must honestly question every so-called Christian teaching. We must do it to weed out the irrelevant and wasteful manmade teachings from that which truly has eternal value. In Acts 17: 10-11, the Bereans even tested Paul’s teaching against the Scriptures, and were considered noble for their wise approach.

To question and test everything, even the fundamentals of the faith, and to put them on trial without the slightest bit of mercy, will prove the fundamental truths to be indeed true, and will do nothing less than substantially reinforce ones basic faith. It will also cause one to see that a lot of the other beliefs and ideas, especially extra-biblical ones, have to go.

Questioning is good, and not one dogma, theory, or interpretation should be exempted from its demolishing attempt. Truth will not be destroyed by questioning or scrutiny. It will always stand unbeatable, because questioning only confirms truth and makes it visibly stronger; not crumble it.

On the other hand, the manmade distortions of truth – those that we sometimes hold to be so valuable, and use as a criteria for fellowship, and are even sometimes willing to die for – will fall apart under such honest questioning. And anything that is destroyed by honest questioning is obviously spurious and deserves to be junked. By crumbling and falling apart, it proves to be vain.

One should never be asked or expected to believe blindly anything that a preacher says. They should be encouraged to honestly question and challenge everything they are told. One learns through the process of honest questioning, objective thinking, and respectful challenging is more apt to know in the end what is really true. He will also know “why” he believes it.

3. BIBLE TEACHING vs. BELIEVERS’ TRADITIONS

The premise of the Christian faith is the Bible, not passed-down provincial traditions. Many beliefs in the Christian community are held to be valuable not because there is any inherent biblical value in them, but simply because the former generation held them to be valuable.

We must give these “traditions” their lesser place. We should not be guilty of equating these provincial traditions with the teachings of Scripture. Jesus refused to tolerate this gross error among the Pharisees. And he refuses to tolerate it today among the hard-core legalists, despite the fact that most of them have hearts that are hardened to that notion, just was the Pharisee’s heart.

Separate bible teachings from believers’ provincial traditions. Do not give the latter any universal value, and any value at all. Never be guilty of misinterpreting the Bible because of looking at through the filter of believers’ provincial traditions. Endeavor to the best of your ability to strip away all traditions and look objectively at the Bible – the raw and naked Word of God.

4. SPIRIT PRESSURE vs. PEER PRESSURE

Do not be guilty of failing yield to the pressure of God’s Spirit. Don’t yield to the peer pressure. Many are so calloused to the pressure of God’s Spirit that the only pressure they feel in any real, effective, and decisive way was the sly but powerful pressure of peers.

Don’t misunderstand the peer pressure, and automatically feel it is God using it to keep you on track. Don’t confuse pressure from peers from God’s inner guidance. There is no such thing as pastoral peer pressure. Pastors using such methods and influence on their followers need to get out of the forest to see the trees. Unfortunately, pastoral peer pressure does exist where it should not exist at all. It can be just as harmful and destructive as worldly peer pressure. It can be rightly argued that pastoral peer pressure can be a positive motivational factor, but it can also be argued with just as much evidence that pastoral peer pressure can be a motivational factor in the “wrong direction,” especially if all your peers are going in the wrong direction.

If each of the peers is fearful of changing direction because of the risk of being condemned and ostracized by the others, the whole group is locked into an unchecked path. If one dares to break free to question the legitimacy of the group’s direction, he is quickly classified as a liberal, and thus ceases to wield any inside influence. None of the other pastors – again because of peer pressure – will give the guy a sympathetic or attentive ear. None of them will listen to his reasons or arguments. They will refuse to be associated with him, lest they, too, lose their acceptance.

Most pastors are influenced more by peer pressure than Spirit pressure. It’s obvious they are not listening to God’s Spirit as long as they continue to preach and believe their extreme and senseless traditions with a self-righteous and know-it-all attitude. They have become the Pharisees of our day, and their inner-circle peer pressure keeps them blinded to that fact.